In a typical search scenario, a user types in a search string. The string is submitted to a search engine which analyzes the string and then returns its search results to the user. The user may then choose among the returned results. However, often the results are not to the user's liking, so he chooses to refine the search. (Here, “refine” means to narrow or to broaden or to otherwise change the scope of the search or the ordering of the results.) To do this, the user edits the original search string, possibly adding, deleting, or changing terms. The altered search string is submitted to the search engine (which typically does not remember the original search string), which begins the process all over again.
This straightforward process breaks down when the search is being performed as part of a group decision-making process. In this situation, usually one person runs the search while the others haphazardly offer their own, often conflicting, advice on how to refine the search. Most people have some experience in group decision making, wherein individual group members, each with a different set of constraints and personal preferences, try to work together to make a unified decision that affects everyone in the group. Whether the outcome is of the highest importance or is trivial (e.g., whether the decision is how to found a republic or what appetizer to share at dinner), the problems of fully considering the input of all group members and fairly resolving any conflicts within the group have daunted the best conciliators and politicians since time immemorial.
When applied to refining a search, group decision-making dynamics often lead to frustration when inputs are misunderstood or conflicts are not satisfactorily resolved. Some group members may feel that their concerns were not properly weighted or were not considered at all. In some cases, a group member may wish that his concerns be considered, but he is shy about letting those concerns be widely known to others in the group.